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Bitch Slap
Newspaper editor Mark Manning's company is about to merge with a conglomerate headed by Gillian Reece, an arrogant and self-absorbed businesswoman who will stop at nothing to ensure her dominance over others in the business world as well in her own marriage. Her husband, Esmond, remains with her as a matter of convenience, although he is somewhat smitten with another, thereby adding an air of tension in this tentative relationship.
Suspicions abound ...Body Language
"Body Language" is Craft's third in the Mark Manning series. Manning returns to his hometown after inheriting a sizeable fortune from a deceased family member. Managing a local newspaper, a cousin is killed and Manning and company embark on an investigation to solve the crime. With familiar characters from the first two novels along, Craft introduces some fresh faces that add to the enjoymnent of the character and his endeavors. A great read from a g...Boy Toy
The fifth book in the Mark Manning series by Craft has our journalist hero trying to solve the murder of one of the stars of a community theater production. The unexpected death of the youth produces a wealth of suspects; chief among them is Manning's own son Thad. It is up to Manning, his lover Neil, friend Sheriff Pierce, and his other associates to crack this crime and put to rest the suspicions surrounding Thad....Desert Autumn
St. Martin's, Dec 2001, 24.95, 352 pp.
ISBN: 0312200343
Not that many people start life anew at fifty-four, but Claire Gray is one person who did. Claire was once the toast of Broadway as an award winning director and playwright, but relocates to Palm Desert to manage the Desert Arts College Theater. Mega-millionaire Glenn Yeats recruited the most talented people including Claire to chair the departments at the school.
At a welcoming...

Craft booklist

Desert Spring
St. Martin's, March 2004, 23.95, 272 pp.
ISBN:03123200809
She was a famous Broadway director, well known and respected, who took a sabbatical to write her own play Traders which won a Tony and was nominated for an Oscar when it was made into a film. At age fifty-four, she was recruited by Glenn Yeats, who founded and is now president of Desert Arts college, two hours noth of LA, to be the chair of the theatre department. One day when she went ...Desert Winter
St. Martin's, Feb 2003, 23.95, 288 pp.
ISBN 03123051x
After spending over three decades on Broadway directing award winning plays Claire Gray at the age of fifty-four changes careers when she is recruited by computer mogul billionaire Glenn Yeats to chair the theatre department at the Desert Arts College in Palm Springs. After three months of working there she is only a week away from directing her first play “Laura”.
She wants everything to ...Eye Contact
"Eye Contact" is a thoroughly involved novel set in the Midwest. Journalist Mark Manning investigates the mysterious goings-on of a fundamentalist religious group and its connection with his fellow employees at a fictional Chicago newspaper. Utilizing contemporary wiles about sexuality and believable settings and use of technology, Craft has fashioned a good old-fashioned thriller that is truly a page-turner with great characters and plot development. ...Flight Dreams: Mark Manning 1
Wealthy Chicago widow Helena Carter disappeared six years and nine months ago. In three months, Helena will be declared legally dead and her estate will be divided up amongst the charities listed in her will. Investigative journalist Mark Manning had covered Mrs. Carter's disappearance years ago and was one of the few who still believed that she was alive. He refused to follow the mainstream and make his articles match what every other newspaper was repo...Hot Spot
The sixth in the popular Mark Manning mystery series has Manning involved in solving the electrocution death of a popular matriarch of the community. Paramount in Mark's investigation is the fact that one of his oldest friends, Roxanne Exner, is considered the prime suspect. Exner, her new husband Carl Creighton (candidate for lt. governor), Manning's life partner Neil, and other friends, race against a political deadline to prove her innocence. A sub...Name Games
Michael Craft's fourth in the Mark Manning series is a page-turner as were the first three. Manning has now settled in his life as editor of the small Dumont Register, a paper in Wisconsin. He and his lover Neil are getting accustomed to being the "parents" of their teenaged ward Thad. Doug Pierce, the town sheriff, comes under suspicion when a visiting collectibles expert is found murdered. It is up to Mark to use his ingenuity and journalistic wits...

Michael Craft list of books

Rehearsing
Broadway director Claire Gray returns to her college town and is thrust into the world of local theater. No sooner has she arrived that George McBeth sets his sights on her in his quest to leave the small town of Evanston and make his debut in Gray's next "Big Apple" production. Both characters "use" each other for their mutual pleasure....